Lubec, Maine - McCurdy Herring Smokehouse

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McCurdy Herring Smokehouse

(Page 3 of 4) Print Version

Section 2: Six Steps in Producing Smoked Herring: 1990 and 1896

Sluicing the herring into wooden tanks.Frank Van Riper, photo

The words of a careful investigator, Ansley Hall, tell much about the process, even then, already practiced in Lubec for possibly one hundred years. The description in his article, published in the 1896 Report of the U. S. Commission of Fisheries, anticipates what was printed yet almost one hundred years later. Words and photographs of Hugh French and his students in the early Eighties, and of Frank Van Riper in the early Nineties showed how traditional the process was without intending to do so.

Step One: Sluicing into the tanks
Hall observed that the fish “are immediately put into the pickling tanks, which have first been partially filled with a weak pickle.” (P. 457). In his time, fish were hauled up in baskets from the boats, and dumped into the tanks. Later came winches, buckets and sluices. In the early Seventies, John McCurdy installed a major innovation, illustrated at the end of Part II.

Working in the brining roomFrank Van Riper, photo.

Step two: Brining
As were herring were put in the tanks, more salt and water was added, and the mixture was tended for several days, according to Hall. A “spudger” was used to “break up” the herring and salt on the top, and to mix bottom with top. Neither Hall nor Van Riper could communicate the vital importance of an element of the folk culture of smoking herring. This was the understanding, accumulated through generations, of how long to allow the brining to go on, how much salt to add and when, given the condition of the fish and the temperature.

Stringing the herringFrank Van Riper, photo

Step three: “Stringing”
The work of putting herring on the traditional sticks was still the same in Van Riper’s time. However, in Hall’s time, and for many years after, the herring sticks were placed on a “horse.” At the end of the smokehouse era but well before the time Van Riper took his pictures, an easier-to-use implement replaced the horse.

Step four: Draining and drying
Hall’s words published in 1898 could describe what happened was going on in the Van Riper photograph taken in 1990. The herring are “carried out into the open air, where they are allowed to remain until the water drains off of them and they have become sufficiently dry to hang in the smokehouse.” (Hall, p. 460). Here, just as in the brining step, there was an accumulated understanding important to carry out the process, an understanding of how long to leave the herring outside, given temperature, weather, and fish condition.

Draining and drying the herring on cartsFrank Van Riper, photo

Step five: Inside the smokehouse
The actual smoking operations were complex, and required, even more than brining and drying, a broad understanding based on transmitted experience. Several pages could be presented on just the sub-steps. Hall has two dense pages, and they do not adequately describe what was done and why. (Pp. 460-61). Some of his words anticipate the Van Riper photograph.

“Handing up” in the smokehouseFrank Van Riper, photo

The work in the smokehouse was demanding and required much of that accumulated understanding. Sticks of herring needed to be hung for a time on the lower level for the fish to dry so the gills would harden, preventing herring from falling off the sticks. Fires needed to be lit, allowed to die, sticks moved up, fires lit again, “windows” set for the right draft and air circulation. There was “putting the herring in the house by degrees,” the “handing up” and the ‘handing down,” all at the right times. There were the jobs of the “fireman:” selecting the right kinds of firewood, governing the level of the fires, and damping them with sawdust. All this was important in managing the “cure,” the ultimate job of the owner/manager. Finally, there was judging when the herring were ready for skinning and packing. Here was vital more of the accumulated understanding passed from generation to generation.

Skinning and packingFrank Van Riper, photo

Step Six: Skinning and packing operations
Hall had nothing to say about this step, at least in the sense of what was done. One of the reasons for his report was to encourage the development of this and other fishery industries. Thus, box sizes and grades of quality and fish size interested him

Toward the last years of his operation, McCurdy packed only one grade, in one size box, fish packed lengthwise. Van Riper’s photographs of the operations in the Skinning/Packing Sheds, the artifacts left there, and memories of workers help in understanding the work. Natalie Havens, who used to work at McCurdy’s, made an important point in 2001: Each person working in the Shed did everything: skinning, gutting, boxing and weighing, from start to finish. As usual in a traditional industry, there was no assembly line.

A Traditional Fishery Industry
This exhibit takes an historical approach that may be unfamiliar to some, looking at the industry as an example of folk culture with deep roots. Smoking herring was a traditional process. That does not mean “old-timey” or “easy to do,” by any means. McCurdy’s in Lubec serves as the example to demonstrate what was involved, and the tools and implements used. The industry could not have carried on without the accumulated understanding that was passed from generation to generation, a major theme of the exhibit. Another major theme is continuity, persistence of old patterns of buildings, tools and technique.

Looking at Material Folk Culture
As long ago as the late Sixties, Henry Glassie called upon historians, folklorists and geographers to look at things from the past in a new way. High style architecture and the decorative arts had their place. But to really understand the world, it was necessary to look at traditional culture, the ordinary houses and barns, the chairs and tools that ordinary people created, worked in and with. The patterns in material folk culture needed to be uncovered. One way to uncover the patterns was to look at what people had made in the course of farming, fishing, making furniture, cooking and preserving food; things they thought were “traditional.” The complementary way was to look for evidence of continuity in “early reports in print” of the things and activities. (Pattern, p. 4). Much of my work through the years has been guided by this approach. For this exhibit, Ansley Hall provided the evidence of continuity in the traditional culture of preserving herring by smoking.

Herring Sticks: Chicken or egg?
“The size of the sticks as they come from the mill is one-half inch square . . .. After being cut into lengths of 3 feet 4 inches each, the edges taken off, and one end sharpened, they are ready for use.” (Hall, p. 455). To us they present a classic chicken and egg problem. Which came first: The traditional length of the sticks, 40”, or the width of the “bays” in smokehouses? Hall stated that the bays were 38 inches wide without raising the origin problem.
(P. 455).

John McCurdy Remembers
In 1969 Arthur McCurdy bought some of the carts on the Canadian island of Grand Manan where there used to be many herring smokehouses. Thereafter, he and his son had them fabricated at their smokehouse. Approximately twenty-five were needed when the brining tanks were full, and “stringing” was going on full tilt. John McCurdy had the pump and hose installed in 1974, along with a requisite three-phase electrical service. It was a system used at canneries, and he found it wise to adopt it. The herring carriers could be unloaded quickly and back to the weirs for another load. The increased amount of fish necessitated rebuilding the sluices so they could handle the volume. [phone interview, 4/2/09].